Do you want to see how you will look when you are old? AgingBooth is a new app that uses your pictures and instantly ages your face. This face aging machine can be downloaded to your iPhone or iPod Touch and used on your family, friends, or colleagues. Are you ready to face your future?

On Wednesday, a Senate committee called for stricter state action to cut down on elder financial abuse by guardians. The General Accountability Office (GAO), the investigative arm of Congress, also noted a lack of state monitoring on elder abuse. To curb this abuse, the GAO insists on courts ensuring that a guardian is necessary before appointing one. The agency also suggests that the court continue to monitor the guardianship to ensure its effectiveness. In addition, courts should consider less restrictive means outside of guardianship, such as caregiving. With these efforts, the GAO notes, elder abuse by guardians should be sufficiently reduced.

Life insurance has long been considered a hard to value asset. Practitioners and planners have dealt with a variety of definitions of fair market value (FMV), depending on the particular application that’s being addressed. Historically, standard valuation practices come with their own set of challenges. Similar to other asset classes, this topic is evolving, and there are current valuation methodologies that provide an independent market-based value for life insurance that accurately conforms to the Internal Revenue Service definition of FMV. This level of precision can influence planning scenarios and open up new options when dealing with complicated life insurance decisions involving senior clients.

A recent study finds that approximately 10% of American seniors suffer elder abuse, but this problem is often missed in hospital emergency departments. Emergency doctors only make a formal diagnosis in one out of every 7,700 visits by seniors. American seniors often rely on emergency care doctors over primary care doctors for their routine care, making over 23 million emergency department visits per year. This represents an opportunity for emergency departments to identify elder abuse and ensure the safety of these seniors.

Currently, 5.4 million Americans have Alzheimer’s disease. This number will continue to grow as the baby boomers age. However, recent research suggests that Americans can do things to prevent or slow the onset of the disease. Exercise and diet are the two main things that can help prevent Alzheimer’s. More specifically, 2.5 hours of moderate exercise per week should do the trick with a variety of activities that promote healthy cognitive aging. Over the years, our society has become more and more sedentary, so it is a good idea to increase your movement whenever possible. These simple steps can help improve brain function as we age and prevent or slow the onset of Alzheimer’s.

This article provides a very basic overview of the new ABLE accounts and the role they play in assisting elderly clients in planning for their own disabilities or for the disability of a family member. Part II provides a brief background on the requirements of traditional disability planning devices, including individual special needs trusts, pooled special needs trusts, and third-party supplemental needs trusts. Part III provides an overview of the ABLE Act in terms of its general restrictions and parameters; its tax provisions, including monitoring; its Medicaid payback provision and its limits; and when Minnesota residents can expect to start using ABLE accounts. Part IV finishes with an analysis of the new ABLE Act accounts, how the Act compares with the traditional disability planning tools such as special and supplemental needs trusts, and what spot the Act occupies in the estate planning toolbox, ultimately concluding that the structure of the new ABLE accounts is restrictive enough that ABLE accounts do not serve as replacements for the traditional disability planning tools, but that ABLE accounts' tax savings may be worth taking advantage of in certain circumstances.

Despite fears that dementia rates would rise as the population began to age, a recent survey published by JAMA Internal Medicine suggests the opposite. Those that do get dementia, however, are getting it at older and older ages. The survey reports that dementia rates in Americans sixty-five and older fell by over 24% over twelve years. This particular survey was far more encompassing of the general population, surveying all races, education levels, and income levels. Surprisingly, the years of education an individual had was correlated with decreased dementia risk. The decline found in the survey is consistent with a long-term trend, but over the next few decades, the total number of people with dementia should rise but not as much as had been estimated.

Special needs trusts have been a way for disabled individuals to remain eligible for means-tested federal benefits. More institutional support is necessary to manage these funds; however, corporate fiduciaries are distancing themselves from this specialty. Four reasons for this move include increased litigation and regulatory issues; profitability concerns; lack of experience; and lack of time and resources. In order to alleviate these concerns, fiduciaries should start expanding their education through conferences and CLEs. Further, attorneys should ensure that their fiduciary referrals are informed, looking for expertise to navigate legal and regulatory issues.

According to a recent study, financial abuse and exploitation of American seniors is costing them 20% more than it did two years ago—from $30,000 to $36,000. In fact, 37% of active caregivers said that the elder they are caring for experienced financial abuse or exploitation with a loss. Additionally, caregivers for elders with cognitive decline reported witnessing a higher level of financial abuse. Consequently, this abuse has caused elders anger, depression, anxiety, and/or guilt.

What role does the honor commandment play in contemporary law and culture? Answering this question is especially pertinent in the early twenty-first century. With advances in longevity and declining birth rates, a growing percentage of the population is graying. In 2015, there were 901 million people aged sixty or over worldwide; a number projected to rise to 1.4 billion in 2030. By 2050, there will be more persons over the age of sixty than children under the age of fifteen. As the number of our global elders grows, so too will the number of those needing and providing physical and financial care.